Catan Death March

[thebitterguy]

So, last night Cynra & I went over to mr_weasel's for dinner and some board games.

So, we played a game of Settlers of Catan that... Well, look. The box says "60 minutes". That's not unusual, right?

This game... This game lasted longer. At the end, we were all sitting at a high number of points, everyone had some development cards (and they were in fact, sold out) and we were just sitting there. And it was late. And we were tired. And the game just wouldn't end. We kept rolling sevens (There were six in a row one time. I know that isn't very strange with 2d6, but seriously!), and no one could get across the finish line, and the game JUST WOULD NOT END.

And that's why I play Munchkin.

Comments

[thebitterguy]

Wow. That's a lot to absorb there.

Hey, you're a smart guy: Can you play a knight card before you roll your dice?

[viktor-haag.livejournal.com]

Yes, it is a lot to absorb; sorry. I've probably racked up somewhere in the neighbourhood of 75-100 games played of Settlers over the years. I would say that I've probably played more games of Settlers than any other single boardgame, with the possible exception of old classics like checkers and chess. Mostly because a decade ago when Mayfair first brought the game to North America, it was one of only a handful of German-style games that were easily available here, and we kind of OD'd on it... 8)

Now, that said, I haven't spent a huge amount of time formulating strategies (not as much as for other games, anyway)...

As for playing the knight card before rolling, I believe that, specifically you may do this. I believe that you can play a card at any time, on your turn, provided that you haven't purchased the card on that turn (the exception to this is that you may play a point card on the same turn you buy it, but functionally, this only happens to go out). I cannot remember whether that particular detail is well covered in the current rules or a FAQ, but it's undoubtedly a rules-point that's important to know (and settle on) before play, because it's an important one. You really do want to move that guy off your hexes before you roll (unless you have a surplus and you're trying to punish the other players built on that hex).

[viktor-haag.livejournal.com]

Another interesting bit of card-play timing -- if you have a Monopoly card, you have to judge whether you want to play that before you roll, or not. If you have more than two other players sitting with a mitful of cards, then you probably want to play the card before you roll. Yes, if you then roll a seven, a lot of those winnings will go away, but you will also manage to be the one who gets to decide what to throw away, rather than let the other players thin out their hands with diversity being a top priority (as they'll almost certainly do), leaving you with proportionally slimmer pickings.

You'll especially want to consider this point if you've built on a 2-1 trading port....